2^2 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



THE SPOON-BILL. 



The spoon-bill has its name from the spoon-like manner in which both the 

 upper and the lower parts of its bill terminate. 



It is in other respects like the stork and the heron, and lives upon the 

 same food. At one time the spoon-bills used to inhabit our own country, and 

 to build their nests on the top of the tallest trees. They used to appear in 

 March, for they are birds of passage. Many of them were destroyed for the 

 sake, not of their flesh, but of their beautiful white plumage and their 

 curious-shaped bill. Flocks of spoon-bills were in old times seen in the 

 marshy land of the eastern counties, near to Yarmouth ; but since much of 

 this land has been drained and cultivated very few spoon-bills have been seen. 



The birds spend their summer in Holland, and then pass into Italy or 

 even Africa for the winter. 



Their nests are made of reeds bound together by weeds, and are in the 

 middle of the river, only a few inches above the surface of the w^ater. The 

 nest is not lined, and is just large enough to allow the mother bird to set 

 on the eggs, while her partner stands beside her. Sometimes they build 

 on high trees, and, indeed, prefer it. 



They feed on fishes and insects and shrimps, and other such kind of diet ; 

 but, if pressed with hunger, will eat almost anything. 



The whole of the plumage of the spoon-bill is pure white, except a band 

 of feathers in the front of the neck that is a buff colour. It has a beautiful 

 plume of feathers on its head. Its legs and toes and claws are black ; and 

 the toes are connected by a membrane. The beak is black, except at the 

 rounded part, where it is yellow. 



There is a curious fact about the spoon-bill that must not be passed over. 

 It is one of the very few birds that possess no organ of voice, and it cannot 

 utter a single note. There is an entire absence of those muscles that can 

 contract and dilate the air-tubes by which the voice is formed and uttered ; 

 in some birds these arc like a musical instrument, and enable them to pour 

 out their soncfs. 



